"I understand," Max said, his voice calm yet filled with a newfound clarity, even as spatial tears howled around him like shrieking blades of the void.
"Thanks, Blob… for guiding me right now." There was no resentment, no defensiveness—only quiet acceptance. "As you've said… I completely forgot about sword and fire auras," he continued, eyes scanning the storm of dimensional rifts that surged ever closer, "the ones I learned at the very beginning. They were my foundation… my edge."
His lips curled slightly in something between a grimace and a smile. "Even lightning and space—two of the most versatile auras I've ever touched—I used them so sparingly, so carelessly… just enough to keep moving forward, but never deep enough to master. I kept telling myself I was building strength, but I was only layering weight I didn't fully understand. I kept trying to increase their level without understanding them."
